Today’s route had all the elements that cyclists love and detest. Riders faced a challenging climb up Wolf Creek Pass with over 4,500 feet gained in 24 miles, then a fast descent through 2 tunnels and a strong headwind and crosswind for 50 miles.

This was a challenging route for just these reasons only and add in that we are in day 4 so a lot of us are a little saddle and muscle sore.

The route takes us up to the top of Wolf Creek Pass. I am pedaling up an 8% grade at an average speed of 6 miles an hour and this allows you time to take in the views and also read the chalk messages that the RTR staff has written for us to read (More on this later). Upon cresting the pass, we have a fast descent to the town of South Fork where our aid station is set up at a malt shop.

Heading to the aid station, the road has flattened out and the wind is swirling around riders as we fight to make progress to Alamosa. We continue on to Del Norte and then into Monte Vista, where we are served up a free baked potato bar by the Colorado Potato Committee. This was a perfect treat after 74 miles of riding.

Too much scenery! It would be disingenuous to say that I have become jaded by the vistas and the sublime rivers and streams, but Colorado and Ride the Rockies just keep producing expansive and impressive scenes around each corner.

Unfortunately I’m only carrying my cell phone so the pictures can only be so good. And, by the way, I’m trying to move my carcass up and down and across a lot of territory. I don’t often feel like impeding my momentum by stopping and taking a picture. Sorry, you’ll have to design your own road trip to the Rockies.

More dirt: cyclists on CO Route 3, a 17-mile stretch of dirt and gravel off of Ute Pass.

So I was washing off after today’s 96-mile ride from Leadville to Granby, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much dirt running down the drain. After two days of riding in the stuff, I feel like it’s embedded itself in everything. My bike is covered in it, I’m covered in it, everything I touch ends up dirty. I feel like Pigpen from “Peanuts,” walking around in my own ever-present cloud of dirt. And after today’s ride, I also got to dig a little gravel out of my gear. The 17-mile stretch of “hardpack dirt road” was actually more gravel and sand than dirt, and much like Tuesday’s dirt stretch near Independence Pass, people either love it or loathe it. I’m thinking there were more loathes than loves today; support vehicles were again carting cyclists and bikes off the course all day, some riders so angry they could barely contain themselves. I heard some interesting words. I imagine that some of the organizers are getting their own earful today, but I guess they’re probably used to that. Cyclists aren’t always an easy bunch to reason with.

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A tandem navigates the gravel on CO 3.

But it’s been a tough course for many folks; one of the support vehicle drivers said that more people were taken off the course Tuesday than anytime in Ride The Rockies history. I have no way of checking those facts, but it certainly seemed busy today as well. If a challenge is what you were looking for in Ride The Rockies, then you’ve gotten a good one. And Thursday’s climb up Trail Ridge Road should keep the challenges coming.

Cyclists tackle yet another hill after coming down from Oak Creek on Wednesday.

So it seems some people were under the impression that Wednesday was a “rest day” on Ride The Rockies. I guess the definition of the phrase is totally relative: for example, some people made sure it was a rest day and simply didn’t ride, choosing to spend time in downtown Steamboat Springs and give their unmentionables a well-deserved rest.

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Another clear, sunny day, complete with hovering hot-air balloon, greeted cyclists as they made their way out of Steamboat Springs on Wednesday morning.

There were others who decided to bike the planned route for the day, a 50-mile loop that took us through the hills surrounding the town, crossing through Oak Creek and rolling farmlands before returning to Steamboat. Again, it looked relatively low-key on paper; up close and personal, it was anything but. And I think for folks looking forward to a recovery ride, it was a bit of a tough surprise.

In 2012 I asked Bryan Boyle if he was interested in running the Chicago Marathon — two weeks later he asked if I was interested in Ride the Rockies. I got a road bike, got on the tour, and have yet to regret it. This will be my second RTR.